


Sketches from Kellynch

by Adina



Category: Persuasion - Jane Austen
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-24
Updated: 2006-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-25 05:17:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1633538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adina/pseuds/Adina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A stocking stuffer written late on December 23rd.  Scenes from before and after the novel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sketches from Kellynch

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Jae W.

 

 

1806, Kellynch

"Are you certain you won't come to London with us?" Elizabeth asked as she and Sir Walter stood in the hall, the carriage in the act of drawing to a halt at the door.

It was much too late for Anne to change her mind, and well Elizabeth knew it, but even if asked aforetime Anne would have declined. "Thank you, but no. London holds no attraction for me that supersedes that of the country in springtime." The looks both father and sister gave her were redolent with pity, if not scorn, for anyone so lost to fashionable society, not that they were sorry to miss her company. "Have a safe journey," she added, since the footman was holding the door open for them.

Her father and sister were loaded into the carriage with the maximum of fuss and inconvenience, but at last they were off. Anne wandered back into the empty front parlor with unfilial contentment. She would sleep and dine at Lady Russell's, of course, but during the day the house and park were hers.

On her walk to Lady Russell's that evening she was passed by a strange man on a fine horse, but failed to notice despite his warm regard.

***

1808, Plymouth

 _Miss Anne Elliot_  
Kellynch Hall

My dear Miss Anne,

I cannot hope that you remember me as fondly as I you, yet confident of your good wishes, I desired to tell you that I have returned to England. I have late been the captain of the H.M.S. Asp, which had the good fortune to reap a good crop of privateers as well as one French frigate since last I saw you. It was, alas, her final voyage, yet I am please to report that I have been given the command of the Laconia, a comfortable, well-built, newer ship.

It would give me great pleasure to visit Gloucester again, though my brother has left the curacy of Monkford for a living in Shropshire. I have long admired the countryside in Gloucester, and since the prize moneys for my successes aboard the Asp total some few thousand pounds, I had thought to purchase a small establishment in that area. Perhaps--

Captain Wentworth stared at the words on the page, cursing Anne's family and his own stilted words. Crumpling the paper, he threw it into the fireplace.

***

1815, Bath

"You must stay with us as long as you wish," Admiral Croft insisted for the seventh--or was it eighth?--time. "Great big house, plenty of room, why I doubt we would ever notice you're there! I'm sure Miss Anne--for so I must call you until Saturday, mustn't I?--will be pleased to live in Kellynch Hall again."

"I'm sure Mrs. Wentworth will want an establishment of her own once she's married," Mrs. Croft said, rather more sensibly but with equal warmth. "You will visit us after your wedding journey, though, won't you?"

Captain Wentworth smiled on his sister. "We will impose on you after we visit Edward in Shropshire. We had thought to settle in Kellynch, so you may be our hosts as we look for a house."

***

1818, Kellynch

The birth of Captain and Mrs. Wentworth's first child, a son to be named Thomas after his paternal grandfather, was cause for universal rejoicing. Mrs. Smith, Anne's first visitor after her confinement, pronounced him the very image of his father, while Mrs. Croft, only half an hour behind her, proposed that he looked more like his mother. Lady Russell, entering on Mrs. Croft's heels, insisted that the baby more closely resembled Anne's dear mother. Captain Wentworth privately thought he looked like an underdone loaf of bread, but that his mother was more beautiful than ever.

Sir Walter went so far as to suggest that he and Elizabeth might visit from Bath, but that he supposed it "would not be convenient to have visitors in such a small house."

***

1824, Bath and Kellynch

The death of Sir Walter in the year 1824 was regretted by rather more people than anyone besides that gentleman would have supposed possible:

Admiral and Mrs. Croft, long tenants of Kellynch Hall, were to lose a comfortable home, since it was to be assumed that the new Sir William would wish to take up residency himself.

Captain and Mrs. Wentworth, who possessed a very pretty house in the village of Kellynch, were understandably loath to trade _his_ sister and brother for _her_ cousin and the former Mrs. Clay, though Anne held out faint hope that Sir William would have improved with time. Lady Russell, once fooled by an agreeable manner, held less hope for Sir William, and none for his wife.

Miss Elliot, mistress of her father's fashionable home in Bath for so many years, was dismayed at the prospect of becoming a spinster with no establishment of her own. The question of where, and more importantly _with whom_ , she should settle, fed the further disquiet of her relations.

Even Sir William, exultant at attaining the honors of a baronetcy at last, was less pleased to present the wife for which he had settled before the lady he would rather have had. Only the new Lady Elliot was pleased to return to the neighborhood where she had once been a widow without a name of any consequence.

It is neither the duty nor the privilege of an author to give a happy ending to all, but a mere twelvemonth after Sir Walter's death found Sir William and Lady Elliot permanently returned in London. They did not choose to let Kellynch Hall again, but Admiral and Mrs. Croft found a comfortable home some ten miles removed, less convenient to her brother than either family would have preferred. They were such frequent and welcome visitors to the Wentworth home, however, that neither party had any great complaint.

Miss Elliot spent some months alternately in the homes of each sister before repeated unsubtle applications secured her an invitation to visit the Dowager Viscountess Dalrymple in Bath. Her removal thence was to the relief of all concerned, a relief that continued when she remained there as the companion of the Honorable Miss Carteret.

 


End file.
